SA Group MD, 5 others chargesheeted in Tk29cr embezzlement

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a chargesheet against the managing director (MD) of SA Group, Md Shahabuddin Alam, his wife Yasmin Alam, and four other former top executives of Farmers Bank – now Padma Bank – over embezzlement of around Tk29.52 crore.

The four other accused are Mahbubul Haque Chisty alias Babul Chisty, former audit committee chairman and entrepreneur director of Farmers Bank; Rashedul Haque Chisty, his son; Choudhury Moshtaq Ahmed, former Managing Director and CEO of Farmers Bank; and AKM Shameem, another former MD of Farmers Bank.

Choudhury Moshtaq is currently the managing director of National Bank Limited.

On Sunday, Shamsul Alam, a deputy director at the national anti-graft watchdog, submitted the chargesheet to the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge, KM Imrul Qayes.

On October 28, 2018, the ACC filed a case accusing 7 people after it found documented evidence of irregularities in loan processing and siphoning off the funds and their involvement in it.

The anti-graft body subsequently also opened an inquiry into the wealth of Sahabuddin Alam – a Chattogram-based businessman – and his family.

The ACC lawsuit was filed two weeks after the Bangladesh Police's Criminal Investigation Department arrested Alam from Dhaka in mid-October 2018 in a case filed by Bank Asia with Chattogram Financial Loan Court in 2017.

The SA Group proprietor has a loan of Tk3,222 crore, including an amount of Tk709 crore borrowed from Bank Asia, according to the ACC.

Having begun its journey in 1988, the Chattogram-based business entity, SA Group, manufactures fast-moving consumer goods, including edible oil, flour, condensed milk, beverages, salt and milk.

The group later branched out into the business of real estate, pulp and paper products, tea and tank terminals for storage of petroleum products. It now has 17 units of industry.